Articles

Worldwide, biodiversity is in crisis. Species are disappearing at an estimated 100 to 1,000 times the historical rate, driven primarily by habitat destruction and climate change. According to…

During a trip with Saint Michael’s College students to Bunratty Castle in Ireland, our guide explained that medieval castle defenders poured scalding liquids on invaders through a…

In early June 2023, I was driving down the Taconic Parkway through New York’s Hudson Valley when I noticed an abrupt change to the roadside scenery. The lush forest canopy that had been…

Named for the string of lakes where the Connecticut River begins its 400-mile flow from northern New Hampshire, the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters region has long been prized for its thick…

A red maple tree in the backyard stretched well above the two-story house where I grew up. It was not an easy tree to climb, but it was the best one. I would jump up to grab the lowest branch…

Many of us associate bees with gardens or fields of wildflowers and are familiar with the common eastern and golden northern bumble bees we see there. However, forests also provide critical…

One floor above the taxidermied polar bears and crocodiles, in an annex adjacent to the eclectic collection of geological wonders and historical artifacts from faraway places, the Fairbanks…

At 10, I believed all rivers flowed south, pulled by gravity, down the face of a map. These many years later, such a notion seems naïve. Yet that idea – built upon a certain…

I was pushed out of my mother’s body one April, cold and wet, in the fifth season of the year. A measure of frost and mud. It was past the last sap boil, more amber than gold. I was a…

Dozens of people contribute to creating each issue of Northern Woodlands. Here are a few of the people whose work is featured in the Spring magazine. {image2} Bryan Pfeiffer (cover photograph)…

To photograph this red fox and her five kits near his home in Thetford, Vermont, without disrupting the animals, Tig Tillinghast relied on high magnification. This is one of several images he…

After the snow has melted, when the ground has just started to warm and the first hints of green have returned to the landscape, I keep an eye on the space beneath the old apple tree just…

Near the beginning of each year, Northern Woodlands Communications and Circulation Director Emily Rowe shares reports with the rest of our staff, offering a comprehensive look at website…

Winter drapes the hills around the cabin in white, softening the world and quieting its noise. The stillness of the season settles around us, inviting us to live each day with intention,…

In the last installment, we investigated a nonrunning chainsaw with low compression. The compression was so low that the chainsaw failed the “hang test” (holding the saw by the…

for Rick (1956–2022) The pine log screams as he pushes it through the saw. A portable mill because he likes to work outdoors, leaning in to northern summer sun, or weighed down with wool…

“Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will…” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and polymath, 1749–1832 Ice Cut (Violet Kennebec) is…

Dozens of people contribute to creating each issue of Northern Woodlands. Here are a few of the people whose work is featured in the Winter magazine. {image2} Adelaide Murphy Tyrol (Art…

Over the past decade, a new generation of forest “bioproducts” has emerged from university research labs in Maine, combining the natural benefits of wood with a dose of high-tech…

Old-growth forests are ecosystems distinguished by old trees and shaped by long periods of natural processes. They differ in important ways from younger forests, offering unique structures,…